English 395W 5134 combined section with
Anthropology 300
Spring 2012
Klapper 304
“Theory and Practice of Oral History”
Professor Bette S. Weidman, with guest lecturer, Professor Ben Alexander
Oral History is the practice of recording interviews with narrators who wish to preserve
significant life experience. In this class we will prepare ourselves to be effective interviewers, by learning
research methods, developing productive questions, indexing our work with finding aids to make it
searchable, and connecting individual interviews to larger projects. We will look at academic and
popular models of oral history and frame our hands-on approach with readings about the philosophy
and politics of oral history work, the art and science of memory, legalities associated with interview
preservation and dissemination, the contribution of new technologies and the development of archives.
Our own practice interviews will be eligible for inclusion in the Queens Memory Project, a digital archive
established in the Rosenthal Library of Queens College.
Oral History has been present in the American academy since 1945, when the historian Allan
Nevins founded the Oral History Office at Columbia University. In the last sixty-seven years it has spread
to college libraries and historical societies throughout the country. Throughout this period there has
been an international presence in the field, with some philosophical differences which have influenced
American oral history practice. More recently the populist approach to oral history has been developed
by organizations like StoryCorps, a project in which relatives or friends are invited to interview each
other in recording booths outfitted with professional recording equipment and trained facilitators. All
recording are deposited at the Library of Congress as well as in local repositories such as the Queens
Public Library, so they are both preserved and freely accessible to the public. Excerpts from these
interviews are broadcast on National Public Radio and on the StoryCorps website. Thus oral history has
loosened the bonds of the university and become a popular art form.
A special collaboration between the Cultural Studies concentration of the English Department,
the American Studies Program, and the Archival Certification Program of the Library and Information
Studies Graduate School, the curriculum for this course has been developed through a federal grant
from the Queens College Asian American Center. This course is uniquely positioned between academic
and popular oral history, as the Queens Memory Project has established a partnership with StoryCorps.
This may be the only oral history course in the country in which a student’s work could be entered into
the permanent collections of a massive public system like Queens Library alongside StoryCorps
interviews and interviews conducted by professional folklorists documenting life in New York City.
Each student will produce three practice interviews which will be audited and critiqued by the
instructor. Students who successfully complete this course will receive a detailed letter affirming their
readiness to participate in professionally established oral history projects. This credential may provide
an advantage in applying for jobs in teaching, in local historical societies, in business, libraries and
government.
Required Reading:
Donald A. Ritchie. Doing Oral History: A Practical Guide. Second Edition Oxford University Press, 2003.
Paul Thompson. The Voice of the Past: Oral History. Third Edition.Oxford University Press, 2000.
These books have NOT been ordered at the campus bookstore. Get them from Amazon, used, for
approximately $10. each, a significant savings.
For each week, there will be short additional reading, an article available from Rosenthal Library’s
electronic databases, or a chapter drawn from an example of published oral history, available on our
electronic site. These are listed in the week-by-week section of this syllabus. As part of your final exam,
you will be asked to choose one of these books to read in its entirety (borrowed from the library or from
Professor Weidman) and to evaluate.(See book list at the end of the syllabus)
Required Writing:
English 395W carries writing credit toward graduation. The W requires fifteen pages of writing during
the semester, with opportunities for correction and revision. The requirement will be met by the 5-page
interpretive essays students will write for each of the three interviews produced. The essay should
respond to these four matters:
1) Summarize the subject matter of the interview. What was your pre-interview preparation?
2) What were the best moments of the interview? Why?
3) Into what larger project or projects might this interview fit?
4) What contribution might your interview make to a historian’s work?
Required Interviewing:
1. Interview #1 : with a member of the Queens College faculty or staff
2. Interview #2: with a friend or family member
3. Interview #3: with a resident of the Flushing, Queens community
Each interview will be accompanied by the five-page interpretive essay described above, with a
short segment of its best part transcribed.
Syllabus
Feb. 2.
1. Introducing ourselves and the project: the readings; equipment; the interview assignments;
arranging a visit to the QMP and the Archives; arranging tour of Flushing with Jack Eichenbaum;
student memberships in OHA.
2. Jumping right in with practice interviewing. Follow-up question exercise with volunteer
interviewees.
3. Presentation of first readings (electronic access): “Four Paradigm Transformations in Oral
History,” by Alistair Thomson in the Oral History Review Vol. 34, Issue 1, pp. 49-70
(ProQuest);”Listening Exercises created by Martha Norkunas,” (on our electronic site).
4. Assignment for next week: Read these articles and Thompson, Chapters 1 and 2; Ritchie,
Chapter 1.
Feb. 9.
1. Preparing for Interview 1 with a member of the QC faculty or staff. More practice.
2. Presentation of background reading, selections on our electronic site from The People’s College
on the Hill; 50 years at Queens College.
3. Various internet resources related to Queens College. Discussion of last week’s reading.
4. The QMP and resources blog: http://queensmemory.qwriting.org/
5. The release form
6. Discussion of Thompson, Chapter 1 and Ritchie, Chapters 1 and 2
7. Topic #1: Academic and popular Oral History: differences and continuities. Presentation of
selection from David Isay’s Listening is an Act of Love, and Elizabeth Pozzi-Thanner’s review,
StoryCorps, from the Oral History Review (on our electronic site)
8. Assignment for next week: Thompson, Chapter 6; Ritchie, Chapters 2 and 3. (in addition to
electronic selections listed above).
Feb. 16.
1. Professor Ben Alexander: “What is Orality?”
2. Your arrangements for Interview 1. More practice. Discussion of last week’s reading.
3. Topic #2: Oral History and Old Age. Presentation of selections from Ronald Blythe, The
View in Winter ; John Egerton, Generations: An American Family; Eliot Wigginton, “Reaching
Across the Generations: The Foxfire Experience,” (on our electronic site).
4. Assignment for next week: Thompson, Chapter 3; Ritchie, Chapter 6 in addition to electronic
selections listed above).
5. Interview 1. due on Feb. 23.
Feb. 23.
1. Interview 1 is due today. Discussion of the experience. I will collect them and audit, bringing
them back during the next two weeks for class auditing of selections;
2. Natalie Milbrodt, Director of QMP: indexing, processing creating a finding aid.
3. Discussion of last week’s reading.
4. Topic #3: Oral History and Work. Presentation of selections from George Ewart Evans,
Where Beards Wag All and Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay; Studs Terkel, Hard Times and
Working; Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor( on our electronic site)
5. Assignments for next week: Thompson, Chapter 4, Ritchie, Chapter 4. In addition to
electronic selections listed above.
Mar.1.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Professor Ben Alexander: “The role of Oral History in the Archives”
Auditing selections from Interview 1.
Discussion of last week’s reading.
Topic #4: Oral History –Place and Race. Presentations of selections by Alex Haley,”Black
History, Oral History and Genealogy”; Theodore Rosengarten, All God’s Dangers; Onnie Lee
Logan, Motherwit; Sarah Rice, He Included Me. (on our electronic site)
5. Assignments for next week: Thompson, Chapter 5; Ritchie, Chapter 5.(in addition to
electronic selections)
Mar.8.
1. Auditing selections from Interview 1.
2. Discussion of last week’s reading.
3. Topic #5: Oral history and Literary History: Presentation of Linda Wagner, Inteviews with
William Carlos Williams.
4. Preparing for Interview 2 – with a family member or friend. More practice.
5. Assignments for next week: Thompson, Chapter 7 in addition to electronic selection.
Mar. 15.
1. Professor Ben Alexander: Oral History and Activism
2. Topic # 6: Oral History and American History; Presentation of Studs Terkel, The Good War
and American Dreams, Lost and Found; Ann Banks, First Person America.( on our electronic
site)
3. Your arrangements for Interview 2.
4. Discussion of last week’s reading.
5. Assignment for next week: Ritchie, Chapter 7 (in addition to electronic selections).
6. Interview 2 due on March 22.
Mar. 22.
1. Interview 2 is due today.
2. Natalie Milbrodt, Director of the QMP: collecting artifacts
3. Topic #7 Oral History and Science: “Oral history on Space, Science and Technology, An Online catalog of the collection of the Department of Space History, National Air and Space
Museum,”
electronic example <http://www.nasm.si.edu/research/dsh/ohp-introduction.html
4. Discussion of Ritchie , Chapter 7.
5. Assignment for next week: Thompson, Chapter 8, in addition to electronic selection.
Mar.29.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Guest lecturer: Jack Eichenbaum, Queens Historian: Flushing history.
Auditing selections from Interview 2
Discussion of Thompson, Chapter 8
Topic #8: Oral History and Community: William Montell, The Saga of Coe Ridge; Ronald
Blythe, Akenfield, Portrait of an English Village (on our electronic site); Warren Lehrer and
Judith Sloan, Crossing the Blvd (www.crossingtheblvd.org)
5. Assignment for next week: Ritchie, Chapter 8(in addition to electronic selections).
Apr. 5
1. Guest lecturer: Rebecca Rushfield, QC Art Library Oral History Project; Foundation of the
American Institute for Conservation Oral History Archives.
2. Auditing selections from Interview 2.
3. Topic #9 Oral History and Art: Elizabeth Stevens, “Review Essay: Art, Artists and Oral
History” in Oral History Review18/1 (Spring 1990)111-115, available on JSTOR.
4. Discussion of Ritchie, Chapter 8.
5. Assignment for next week: Thompson, “Chapter Nine” and “A Life-Story Interview Guide.”
Apr. 19
1. Guest lecturer: Susie Tanenbaum ,Community and Cultural Coordinator, Queens Borough
President’s Office, “Underground Harmonies.”
2. Topic #10 : Oral History and Music: Susie Tanenbaum,” Underground Harmonies,” (on our
electronic site): websites for “Oral History of American Music,” Yale School of Music and
Yale University Library; Music at MIT Oral History Project; Oral History Collection of Country
Music Hall of Fame.
3. Discussion of Thompson, “Chapter Nine” and “A Life-Story Interview Guide.”
4. Assignment for next week: Ritchie, Chapter 5, in addition to electronic materials.
5. Interview 3 due next week.
Apr. 26.
1. Interview 3 due today.
2. Professor Ben Alexander: 21st century orality
Natalie Milbrodt, Director QMP, technical support
3. Discussion of Ritchie, Chapter 5.
4. Topic #11 Oral History and Anthropology: Kathleen Blee, “Evidence, empathy and ethics:
lessons from Oral History,” : Marjorie Shostak, ”’What the wind won’t take away’: the
genesis of Nisa –The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman” (on our electronic site).
5. Assignment for next week: Ritchie, “Principles and Standards of the Oral History
Association” and electronic materials.
May 3
1.
2.
3.
4.
Natalie Milbrodt, Director, QMP, auditing Interview 3 with us.
Topic #12 Holocaust survivors’ projects; American Indian oral history project -websites
Discussion of Ritchie, “Principles and Standards of the OHA and electronic materials.
Choice of book for final review
May 10.
1. Auditing Interview 3.
2. Discussion of Ritchie and electronic materials
3. Review for final.
May 17.
Final Exam Due
The following books, introduced in the course of the semester, are appropriate for selection for your
final exam review. They may be borrowed from the library or from Professor Weidman. They are listed
below in the order in which they were presented in the syllabus. Choose ONE for your exam selection.
David Isay, Listening is an Act of Love
Ronald Blythe, The View in Winter
John Egerton, Generations, An American Family
George Ewart Evans, Where Beards Wag All and Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay
Studs Terkel. Hard Times and Working
Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor
Theodore Rosengarten, All God’s Dangers, The Life of Nate Shaw
Onnie Lee Logan, Motherwit
Sarah Rice, He Included Me
Linda Wagner, Interviews with William Carlos Williams
Studs Terkel, The Good War and American Dreams Lost and Found
Ann Banks, First Person America
William Montell, The Saga of Coe Ridge
Ronald Blythe, Akenfield, Portrait of an English Village
Warren Lehrer and Judith Sloan, Crossing the Blvd.
Susie Tanenbaum, Underground Harmonies: Music and Politics in the Subways of New York
Grading Policies
Grades are based on the whole semester’s work, including class participation. In this class attendance is
crucial, as it is a small seminar involving each of us and guest speakers are invited frequently.
Learning goals:
These are obvious in the structure of the syllabus. You will develop familiarity with the theory
and practice of oral history and its many applications. You will become a practitioner yourself. You will
do analytical writing and reading. You will critique the work of your colleagues. You will contribute your
finished product, if it is worthy, to the Queens Memory Project.
Professor Weidman’s Office Hours:
Mondays, 2-5 P.M. Klapper 345 718-997-4633
Thursdays, 3-4 P.M. Klapper 345 718-997-4633
e-mail: <bette.weidman@qc.cuny.edu>